A French-Belgian feature film based on a popular book, Ernest et Celestine, enters the Directors' Fortnight at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, and will also be screened at the Forum des Images, Paris.

Benjamin Renner (responsible for the César-nominated short film A Mouse's tale) co-directs, along with Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar a story based on the popular books of the Belgian Gabrielle Vincent.

This a story (and a friendship) of a great bear, Ernest, who wants to be an artist, and a mouse Celestine, who does not want to be a dentist.

Animated in 2D computer animation, Ernest et Celestine is a multi-studio production, headed by Les Armateurs (France, responsible for Kirikou and The Triplettes of Belleville), Maybe Movies (France), La Parti (Belgium), Mélusine Productions (Luxemburg), and Studiocanal France (France).

The composer of Emir Kusturica's film, Goran Bregovich, writes the film's soundtrack , and Lambert Wilson voices the bear.

Watch a behind the scenes featurette (in French) via Jeuxactes.com:

The film has been selected to compete (and have its world premiere) at the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival.

For those who are not present at Cannes, and  cannot wait till the film's official release in France (12 December 2012), Ernest et Celestine will be screened at the Forum of Images (Paris, 3 June, 16:30).

See more details here